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Now that ACID TEST premiered in the film festival circuit (more news on upcoming screenings soon!), my thoughts are going to the “what’s next” question. Over the next two years as the short makes its rounds in the festivals and we look to distribution options on platforms such as Seed&Spark, I want to keep the work and efforts we all put in together going. So I’m crowdfunding to expand ACID TEST into a feature film!

Recently, Seed&Spark announced a “Hometown Heroes Rally” – an initiative where they’ve partnered with the Duplass brothers to help feature films find their audience, funds, and recognition. In order to qualify, filmmakers need to crowdfund for their scripted feature films over 30 days between September 12 and October 13 to raise at least $7500 and gain at least 500 followers. Finalists will pitch their projects to Mark and Jay Duplass for the chance to have them executive produce the film and up to $25,000 cash for production! The focus is on regional filmmaking and here in Houston, we’ve got that in spades. Texas is one of the chosen production areas, which makes sense since both brothers attended UT Austin.

I already have a draft of a feature adaptation of ACID TEST but it needs a lot of work. I jumped at the chance of raising development funds through this Hometown Heroes campaign.

In the midst of planning this crowdfunding campaign, Hurricane Harvey hit and I thought about cancelling it. How can I ask for money for a film when so many people need money just to survive? But I know Houston will recover, is already recovering, coming together in such an amazing way to help each other out. This campaign is one step toward bringing the larger film industry to Houston, creating jobs and opportunities, and I feel like if I cancel the campaign, I’m letting Harvey win.

I want this to be an opportunity for all of us. Incentives include film consultations and interviews with the heroes we have here in Houston. This is a Hometown Rally for Houston with an eye toward a stronger future.

The short film ACID TEST always lived within a larger story about a dysfunctional family who loves each other while managing to do everything wrong. The short film introduces us to Jenny, her family, and her friends, and the absurdly dramatic rebellion she adopts to expand her universe. The feature film gives us the broader context of why she’s rebelling and explores the aftermath of this moment where she seems to be worse off than where she started. Through the eyes of Jenny, we experience these tests in life that challenge who we are, what we want, what we think, and what we can do to make our mark in the world.

The Hometown Heroes Rally supports any phase of production, so I want to use the funds to develop and workshop a feature script that’s as kickass as the short we just made. With the funds, I will bring my actors back for a weekend workshop and cast the rest of the speaking roles for a table read. I’m also raising funds for script consultation, location scouting, budgeting and scheduling consultation so that the feature film ACID TEST will be ready to approach investors and move on to production.

FOLLOW the feature film project page on Seed&Spark. (It’s FREE!) Followers are more important than contributions because the top ten projects with the most followers get to pitch!

SHARE the link on your social media along with every post to help expand our network of followers

CONTRIBUTE if you can. For followers of the short film, $5 gets you a link to the finished film as you help continue its development into a feature. 600 followers at $5 gets us $3000, nearly half of the goal! You helped us make an incredible short film that I am so very proud of, and I would love to have the opportunity to pitch the larger story to the Duplass Brothers and bring the larger film industry to Houston to build our film infrastructure. $15 gets you the amazing poster Sharad designed for our premiere!

I need your help to get to $7500 and 500+ followers. It’s a rally. It’s a competition. It’s 30 days. It ends October 13th, the day we screen at BendFilm Festival in Oregon. So many wonderful things going on. Let’s keep it rolling. Let’s do something amazing and fun together.